Petition Against Steam’s Paid Mods Reaches 100k Signatures

NerdBite: It’s pretty evident at this point, that many people are upset at Valve for introducing paid mods into the Steam Workshop. With Skyrim being the first game to support this new paid model, we’re already seeing some of the most popular mods behind a pay wall.

I wish. But after EA revealed their 2014 financial reports and 60%+ of their profit came from DLC & Mobile, it became painfully obvious to me the way the gaming market is shifting and how people are willing to pay for this stuff.

The core gaming market is no longer the majority. We speak the loudest because we are passionate about our love for video games. But the reality is, we are quickly becoming the minority of these companies profit margins.

Core gamers haven't really been the majority since a couple years into last gen. The mainstream always existed, but now the causal market is where most of the money comes from. The core gamer is still a huge market though, which is why we still see games. So long as we exist in sufficient numbers, this will continue to happen.

It just seems weird that this is happening RIGHT NOW. While I don't have a huge problem with it, it does give me heart burn at the potential misuse by modders. I imagine if Skyrim had paid mods all the time, I would have probably spent probably close to a grand by now.

I never used Steam Workshop outside of the occasional GMOD map or mesh, but beyond that, I've aligned myself with the Nexus Mod Community. Valve has to watch to see how this content gets created, and that it's not abused early on by users looking to earn a quick buck.

I suppose, I look at how people make launchers for android. Some of the absolute best launchers are free, they’ve been downloaded millions of times, and they have a donate button. But then started to strip away features AFTER giving away their full launcher for free in the beginning. Suddenly, gesture support, transitions, color options, layouts, lock screen widgets, even themes became "locked" unless you paid the 50 cents or dollar for each individual feature. More companies followed suit and now it costs damn near 20 bucks for something that was free to begin with.

People who say, "just don't buy it" obviously never used mods before. I suppose many think that mods are akin to giving the player a "funny hat" to wear or "super speed" but it goes way beyond that. I use Skyrim as example because I've had nearly thirty or so huge mods going at once, with entire texture replacements, water, lighting, character models, added grass and tree physics, even allowing the player to leave footprints in the snow; Footprints that have actual depth and gradually become filled up again as new snow falls down. Then you have the restructuring of Skyrim entirely, the game then becomes a different experience, the quests have changed, combat can be fine-tuned, new attack animations are added, and changes fundamental to the game's design have taken place.

None of this stuff is easy. Teams of people from around the world collaborate together to improve upon something they love. It’s not a “job”, it’s a hobby, and many of them are young enough to use what they’ve learned and what they’ve created as a portfolio piece, should they decide to get into the industry.

However, Valve needs to pay attention. I am glad that they promise to watch, and if people start making the equivalent of flappy bird expansion packs for 10 dollars, I wouldn’t be surprised that they pull the plug. Sam Neil said it best in Jurassic Park, “Some of the worst things imaginable have been done with the best intentions.”

I would be delighted in a democratic and rebellious way, if this went somewhere!

Sadly, the business realities are different. Steam has over 120M users, from which probably around 10-20% is ready to purchase some sort of DLC. And from that 10%-20%, maybe 5% cares if the mods cost. And further from that 5%, maybe half or less will sign this petition, which would reflect to around 100K to 300K signatures.

exactly, people who really believe that the most important thing for companies is to make the customer happy, are really naive...the first and most important reason they do what they do is to get money, it's their job...

Hey I may play on consoles, but keep me separated from the rest of the indoctrinated morons that (especially) spawned last generation. I can see through the BS of devs/ pubs and rarely support it unless it's a good add-on. Otherwise I stick to the Ultimate editions or such. I know gaming will eventually go to hell and that's why I'm building a large backlog so garbage like PSNow won't get my cash.